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Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is the first installment of a new fantasy MMORPG by Ultima designer Richard Garriott.

Shroud of the Avatar will focus on what made his seminal Ultima series great. Players will be introduced to the game, but then discover their own story. There is an overarching story woven into the player experience, and players may choose to follow the life of the adventurer or, if they prefer, focus on exploration and discovery. Players may even choose the life of a homesteader, either safely within the settled lands or on the dangerous but potentially lucrative frontier. The world is full of opportunities and challenges!

From familiar psychological profiling used to create your character to organically derived game response to player behavior, fundamental virtues and consequence of actions play a huge role in Shroud of the Avatar. Players will be free to choose their path, but must then live with the consequences of their actions.

Shroud of the Avatar will be a PC product available via digital download with episodic content available later for a charge. The game is being built to be enjoyed as a solo experience but it will also contain a persistent world where you can meet and share your experiences with friends both old and new.

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues has raced past its one-million dollar Kickstarter goal. The milestone was reached on Monday night around 8:30 Central Daylight time, in less than 10 and one half days. Since launching the Kickstarter campaign on March 8, more than 14,800 people have backed the highly anticipated project.

There are still 18 days left in the crowd funding campaign and Portalarium, Garriott’s Austin-based game developer, announced the first stretch goals for Shroud of the Avatar, an in-game pet system and seasonal weather. Once the crowd funding campaign reaches $1.1 million, the team plans to add both social and combat pets into the game’s design and at $1.2 million, weather systems will be added. More stretch goals will be revealed as the campaign continues to evolve. The development team announced more bonus rewards/stretch goals to the Kickstarter campaign.

“We are thrilled but also gratified with what we are seeing from the fans backing Shroud of the Avatar,” said Garriott. “My goal is to create an RPG style of gameplay that harkens back to my earlier game development with the Ultima® series. If you liked those games which included fully interactive virtual worlds, ethical parables and deep original fiction, then you are going to truly enjoy this new experience. Our team is super excited to be able to use all the current day state-of-the-art tools to really reinvent the fantasy RPG genre.

“I’m also extremely happy to be working again with my longtime friend and colleague Tracy Hickman, one of the all-time great fantasy novelists, who will help create our story in the game.” Portalarium announced last week that Hickman is joining the Portalarium team as lead story designer on Shroud of the Avatar. Hickman is the New York Times best-selling author of the Dragonlance and Deathgate series.